What if you can't find any Hollyhock? (Week 33)

Because dammit, we couldn't! Our dear caterpillars have continued to munch away, and eventually we exhausted our own supply of Hollyhock leaves. We did a little experiment, trying to find leaves that felt similar to Hollyhocks, and put a variety into the terrarium to see if they'd munch on something else. Nothing worked! We read online that caterpillars are very plant specific and will starve rather than eat the wrong plant. I sent out a desperate email and a friend said she had loads in her co-op, so I went on daily trips to fetch the goods.



They were most thankful. Eventually, after eating their fill and growing many times their original size, they started to form their chrysalids.




We were surprised to learn that they do not 'spin' a cocoon as we'd expected. Rather, they hang upside down for about 24 hours, and then in about 2 minutes, they just poof, morph into a chrysalis. their skin actually turns into it, like a marshmellow over the campfire suddenly turns into a burnt marshmellow over the campfire. Heebie-jeebie time indeed. So we watched them over the course of this week, slowly crawl up the terrarium and then go marshmellow-y.

So of course it was time for a trip to the Butterfly Gardens in Saanich! We grabbed our buddy Taro, whom we'd given some caterpillars to, and headed out. As we remembered, it was humid in there. There were gorgeous butterflies and moths everywhere, plus huge carp and Koi fish, flamingos and a very scary puna ibis bird who stalked Ivy. They have chrysalids from Costa Rica suspended behind a huge window, waiting to 'hatch'. It was a very cool outing for all.

Hannah spent parts of this week at the beach peering into tidepools, or on the computer playing a new machine-building game, or being the house DJ with our stereo system. She's reviving an old favorite of hers, Coldplay's X+Y album. One of her favorite songs is Fix You and as we listened to it she announced that Coldplay was a compound word. Leif and her grandma had been teaching her about these.

Speaking of Leif, he had a number of cool moments this week. On his paper route he was given a tip by one of his customers. At a family soccer game date he met up with his match, a boy named Sebastian who gave him a run for his money. And he perfected his recipe for 'slimy green smoothie'. If you're wondering, it's a banana, ice cubes, a bit of water and a scoop of spirulina powder.

But the big deal this week was that soccer began again and anew. Both kids had their shared class with Taro on Thursday, and Hannah rocked the 'big kids' class. Leif had his first practice with his first team, a big deal in our house. He's never played on a team, I didn't see the benefit over simply learning skills and having fun to see if he liked it. And since he likes it, and has been at it 4+ years now, his coach felt he was ready. We signed him up in a private soccer academy as Leif made it clear he wants to improve, to be the best player ever, so we skipped the community soccer route and went right to the big guns. After their first practice they had their first game on Saturday afternoon. Some photos of the blonde pony-tail dude.





It was a great game for all, and Leif especially had a good time. He scored 3 goals, one by accident, one in play and one through a penalty kick. His penalty kick went right up over the other team's heads and then down into the goal. It was a great moment. The game ended 3-1, with their one goal being scored when Leif was goalkeeper, so there was a nice balance of him rocking the fields, and also finding challenges he couldn't meet quite yet.

Perhaps we'll have butterflies to show you next week . . .